1. Field of the Invention
This invention broadly concerns a machine for turning books or booklets conveyed along a path whereby they are reoriented at an angle from their initial position. More particularly, this invention concerns a machine for handling two streams of closely adjacent booklets and turning the booklets in each stream for labelling and collating at a downstream location.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Small books such as booklets and pamphlets have traditionally been created by collating a number of printed pages and then labelling an area on the exterior of the booklet to minimize mailing costs. These booklets have been printed so that two booklets are printed simultaneously and after the sheets have been collated, a center portion is cut and removed to separate the two booklets. The booklets are typically folded to create a spine along which staples or the like are used as bindings. Heretofore, the address labelling area has been on one side of the cover and oriented with the writing of the address labels extending perpendicular to the spine.
The machines for handling these booklets have been set up to handle two streams of booklets with the labels in this orientation. That is to say, the stapling and cutting machines have all been set up to receive a booklet with this orientation, the label applicators have been set up to apply a label received from the cutting machine with the major axis of the label oriented in a direction transverse to the spine, and the stacking and sorting areas have been set up so that the booklets are "shingled" and only partially cover one another, leaving the labelling area of each booklet visible. The handlers at the sorting machine could thus easily see whether a booklet was in the proper sequence for bulk mailing.
Unfortunately, a change in postal regulations now requires that the label be positioned along the spine, rather than perpendicular thereto in order to take advantage of these reduced postal rates. While this would seem to be a minor difficulty, all of the other machinery necessary to bind, cut, stack, label and sort a high production rate of booklets has been developed with a view toward having the labels positioned transversely to rather than aligned with the spine. If the booklets were to continue to be handled in the previous manner without alteration, the labels would be misplaced, or the labels obscured during sorting. To fail to change the label orientation would result in loss of advantageous bulk postage rates presenting an unacceptable cost to the publisher.
To replace all the machinery in a facility to handle the repositioned label would also represent an unacceptable cost. Thus, a real need has developed to solve the problem of handling books or booklets without a complete re-engineering of the labelling and sorting layout.